Stop Soggy Bread From Wrecking Your Reuben Sandwich In One Simple Step

Of all the best Reuben sandwiches you can find in the U.S., most share one primary characteristic –- the rye bread stands up to the wet ingredients. When moisture from the sauerkraut and Russian or Thousand Island dressing soaks through the bread, a Reuben loses its charm. Christine Pittman suggests that never needs to happen. The recipe developer behind Cook the Story, The Cookful, and the "Recipe of the Day" podcast picked up a few tricks in her youth watching her parents run a successful deli, and she shared some advice with The Takeout to save folks from experiencing a soggy sandwich fate.

Truth be told, there are a few steps that will help prevent a Reuben sandwich from being mushy. But according to Pittman, it all starts with the sauerkraut. "Not only should you drain the sauerkraut by putting it into a fine mesh sieve and pressing down on it so that the water is pushed out, but you should lightly pan-fry the sauerkraut before putting it into the sandwich," Pittman said. "Pan-frying it adds a bit of caramelized flavor to the cabbage, for sure, but it also dries it out even more so that your sandwich is less wet and soggy."

Of course, this turns building a quick sandwich into a culinary event. But that doesn't have to be the case with future Reubens. "You can pan-fry a lot of sauerkraut ahead of time on a grill as part of your prep so you don't have to do it every time you're making a sandwich," Pittman said. However, it only keeps for about three or four days in the fridge (a bit less than the length of time an open can of sauerkraut lasts), so you'll want to be sure you can use it up before it goes bad.

Cooking the sauerkraut addresses one way a Reuben can become saturated with excess moisture, but what about the signature dressing? Sure, frying the outside of the sandwich will give it crisp exterior, but beneath that crunch, the bread can get waterlogged as it absorbs the sauce. That doesn't just create an unappealing bite –- it can cause the structure of the bread to weaken, which could lead to you wearing all those scrumptious ingredients that were formerly inside the sandwich.

Christine Pittman offered a tip for that issue as well. There's obviously no way to remove the water content from the dressing, but you can give the bread some extra stability before slathering it on. "Toast the bread before building the sandwich," she said. "Even though you're going to grill it, toasting it will give it a bit more structure and keep the bread from collapsing from the weight of the ingredients."

One other suggestion Pittman had for avoiding a soggy Reuben involves applying a protective shield to the bread. "Put a small amount of butter or margarine on the inside surface of the bread slices," she said. "This oil layer is a moisture barrier and will stop some of the liquid from other ingredients from getting to the bread." As a bonus to safeguarding the texture of the sandwich, the tasty fat is bound to enhance the flavor.